


Emerald City S1

by MilaMila93



Series: Emerald City [1]
Category: Original Work, Oz (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:40:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23514052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MilaMila93/pseuds/MilaMila93
Summary: A re-imagined OZ. Written with actors/personalities that I feel fit the story I want to tell. Yes I'm a Darren Criss stan. Some racial slurs are included because, you know, prison.
Series: Emerald City [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1691923





	1. New Americana

SEASON ONE

EMERALD CITY

E1S1: New Americana

Mikhail “Kai” Eidelman--Darren Criss  
Mr. Weissman--Adam Arkin  
Cid Silveira--Bruno de Almeida  
Dr. Michael Riddle--Christopher Meloni  
LaVon “LV” Henderson--Trevante Rhodes  
Jackson “Jax” Roth--Charlie Hunnam  
CocaCero--Adam Rodriguez  
Kona--Keanu Reeves

Kai stood there in his room looking at the window. He wasn’t watching the rain as it hit the pane, or the cars with their intense, gleaming lights. He was looking at himself. The way his chest hair curled showed how brown his genes were, his hazel eyes shining as he turned his head from side to side. His lips were blossom pink and supple. I’ve never seen somebody so beautiful. He thought as he reminded himself of a young Marlon Brando. Dark, mysterious, with eyes that told a story. He knew that come the morning, maybe 11:30 or so, he would know his fate. If he was sentenced to the full two years for each count of forgery, he knew it wouldn’t be the end of his life, however, it would definitely feel like it. 

Obsessed with his bone structure, Kai flexed his jawline and turned his head. He had been through all of the hearings. All of the meetings with attorneys trying for plea bargains, but he was too dramatic to take any of them. He needed a trail, so that he could showcase his skills. He got up on the stand and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And he did that. Or at least he thought he did. 

As Kai laid down in his California king, he thought about his truth. He told the jury and the rest of the courtroom that Mr. Weissman had given him permission to use his checks for “whatever he wanted”. Gucci, Cavalli, Jacquemus. For some reason, nobody believed that the wealthy financier to a Fortune 500 company would give liberties to a man more than three decades younger than him. Kai knew that it was true, but he also knew that he had a tendency to make things up and go with them. Like the time he told everyone at school that his mother had dramatically fallen down the stairs and that’s why she was wearing a neckbrace, but deep, deep down inside of him, he knew that she was wearing it because her neck was bruised at the hands of his stepfather. Or when he boasted to everyone that he was sleeping with Mr. Levy for his good grades, when really, deep, deep down, he knew it wasn’t right. Or like when he went off to boarding school and he began to go by Kai. From zero to fifteen, he had been Mikhail, but once he got to Mesivta, he was just Kai.

Kai drifted to sleep thinking about his upcoming death date. Thursday, November 13, 1997. 

The morning had finally come and Kai couldn’t get a lick of good sleep. After three hours of shut eyes, watching his life flash before him, his alarm clock woke him up. He brushed his hair into a style resembling George Clooney at the premiere. As he put on his clothes, Burberry spring collection from head to toe, the phone rang. His lawyer.

“It’s getting late here, Mr. Eidelman. I’m standing outside the courthouse waiting for you.” Mr. Cid Silveira explained. White collar crimes happen left and right in California. Kai could tell that he was ready to move on from him and he wasn’t surprised. 

“That’s weird, I’m at the courthouse.” Kai said as he held the phone between his ear and his shoulder and pulled his brown loafer over a paisley sock. 

“1945 South Hill Street?” Cid questioned. 

“Oh, South Hill. I thought it was North. I’ll be like 20 minutes.”

“I’ll be counting,” He said smugly as he hung up the pay phone.

“Asshole.” Kai said as he grabbed his Hermes satchel with nothing in it.

The courtroom was cold and musky with the smell of old books. The judge looked at the papers in front of him and began to speak. 

“The purpose of this meeting today is not to discuss what has happened in this case, but to assign the appropriate amount of time for Mr. Mikhail Eidelman to learn a lesson in honesty.”

Oh, brother…

Kai couldn’t help but to look down for the entire thirty minutes.

“Therefore, the court orders Mr. Mikhail Eidelman to 16 months for each charge of forgery in the first degree. That’s a total of 5 years and 3 months in Oswald State Penitentiary. You will be transferred immediately.” The judge banged his gavel and it was showtime. 

Kai sobbed into his hands. He wasn’t crying to beg for less time, he wasn’t crying because he was afraid of what life would be like on the 'inside’. He was crying for applause. And he put on a fantastic performance as the deputy slapped the cuffs on his wrists.

The prison smelled just how Kai had imagined it. Like a thousand Roman soldiers who had never bathed a day in their lives. He was pristine. Hair slicked just right. Prison button up shirt, tucked into his prison khakis. They were going to eat him alive. 

He watched the back of the man’s neck in front of him. Dr. Riddle. His nape was sweating, but Kai was freezing. The prison social worker stopped abruptly and turned to him.

“Before, we enter...these people have...some of them are…” Riddle started.

“Are you saying they’re murderers?” Kai said, pushing out a chuckle. It wasn’t a joke to him, it made him nervous, rather. 

“Yes. But don’t fret. They’re...being rehabilitated. This is Emerald City. For the people who are really...working on themselves, you know?”

“So what’s so special about me.” He asked as Riddle opened the glass door to the segregated unit. 

“I actually requested you. We had a bunk available and I wanted a crack at you.” Riddle smiled as Kai stepped into the two-story room with 24 cells and 48 inmates. 

“A crack? Are you flirting with me?” Kai joked quietly. Riddle hadn’t answered and Kai assumed he didn’t hear him while he was locking the door behind him. Kai felt his heartbeat quicken. He wanted to turn around and go back to where he came from. A condo on the westside of Los Angeles. 

“Hey Riddle,” A Black man with a toothpick hanging loosely from his mouth, slowly made his way up to the social worker. “Who is this?”

“Why don’t you ask him, LV.” LaVon smiled with the whitest teeth Kai had ever seen. Then he walked away. 

“So your cell is going to be on the first floor here. We usually reserve these for the older inmates, but I figured since the previous inmate died, you can just take his place.”

Thoughtful. 

“Alright, this is your stop.” Riddle stopped in front of one of the many plexiglass windows that slid open to expose the men behind them. Behind his door, was a shirtless man lying on the bed with the shirt he should have been wearing covering his face. Kai stepped in and began to make his bed, the top bunk, carefully as not to disturb the man under it.

“Hey, Roth,” Riddle called out. He was halfway in and halfway out of the room. 

The muscular man removed the white t-shirt from his face and sighed, loudly. He sat up and looked Riddle in the eyes. Kai tried paying him no mind as he got up and walked over to the social worker as he threw the shirt that barely made it to the edge of the bed. 

“What do you want, Riddle?” He said as he leaned up against the concrete wall. 

“You’re just gonna ignore your new roommate?” Riddle said lowly. 

“You know something,” Roth smiled and brought his face close to Dr. Riddle. “I don’t really like new people.”   
“Oh yeah,” Riddle smiled as Roth backed away. “Well, honestly, I’m sick of seeing your face around here.”

Jackson gently turned from Riddle’s dancing eyes and put his back against the wall, crossing his arms. He stared at Kai as he finished making the bed. He watched as Kai smoothed the wrinkles out of the felt blanket and the stained pillowcase. He was apprehensive to turn around so he pretended, just like he had always done. Riddle looked on more time at Roth and then at Kai and at Roth again. He silently walked away, shaking his head and smiling.

“Bottom bunk.” Roth called, plainly.

“Excuse me?” Kai said looking over his shoulder at the blond.

“Move your shit to the bottom bunk. Speak English?” Roth said, beginning to move forward. 

“Yes,” Kai said nervously, turning around.

“Yes...what?” Roth asked. He had known that he was intimidating. Taller than the man in front of him by at least four inches. And definitely bigger.

“Yes...sir?” Kai said, embarrassed. His first day and he was already becoming somebody’s bitch. 

Roth turned the corners of his mouth. Kai immediately noticed that his laugh was, for lack of a better term, cute. Soft but powerful. “You fell for that?” 

Kai smiled as his brow began to sweat. “Yeah, I...I guess I did. You...you really got me, calling you ‘sir’ and stuff.” Kai softly chuckled as Roth bent over in laughter. 

Roth slowed his laughter down and stood up straight, walking up to the man. Still nervous, Kai extended his hand to keep a distance between the two of them. 

“I’m Kai,” he said smiling. 

“Jackson, Jax, J.R., Roth, seems like everyone calls me something different.” Jackson said, shaking the other man’s hand. 

“I gotta admit, man. You scared me.” Kai said sitting on the bench that was extending from the wall. Jackson had grabbed the pack of cigarettes that was lying on his bed and shook one out. He struck a match and lit it, taking a puff simultaneously.

“If anything, I’d make you call me ‘daddy’.” Jackson said with the lit cigarette in his mouth, muffling his words. His back turned to his cellmate. 

Kai knew he had heard him correctly, but still asked “what?” 

“You know, I wasn’t kidding when I said that you belong on the bottom bunk. And since you just got here, it would be wise of you to listen to me. Because I also wasn’t kidding when I told Riddle that I didn’t like new people”

Kai let out one small chuckle as he watched his cellmate turn to him with a serious look upon his face. 

“Move your shit, rookie.” Jackson said calmly, walking from in front of the bunk bed. “Now.” He yelled as Kai stood up.   
***********************************************************************************************

Kai stared up at the railing that was above him, old and rusty and at any moment, it seemed, Jackson could fall right through. 

“You sleep, Kai?” Jax said in a low voice, but not a whisper. 

“N-no,” Kai said hesitantly. Dinner was unimpressive but the common area gave him a chance to fill out some of the characters he would be dealing with for the next five years. Just like in the movies, people were separated by race. The Black people were seemingly led by LaVon, who was quiet, but looked like he held a lot of secrets. The Latinos were led by “CocaCero”, which Kai was sure was a nickname. The whites all listened to Jax, but Kai pegged him as a semi-permanent leader. The Asian diaspora, where Kai would have been if he wasn’t passing, was led by a passing Hawaiian man named Kona. After dinner and the filling out process, Kai and Jax returned to their room in silence while Jax read The Clash of Civilizations and the New World Order by Samuel P. Huntington. 

“Good. Things get weird in this place when people go to sleep.” Kai could hear Jax shift to his side, facing outward. “What are you here for, Kai?”

“They say it’s fraud. Um, check fraud.” Kai said, laying perfectly still. 

“Fraud, huh? How long they give you for that?”

“Five years and three months.”

“Sheesh. Must have been a lot of checks.” Jackson smiled to himself. A moment of silence passed as Jax lay thinking about his last five years in Oz.

“What are you here for?” Kai interrupted. He knew the answer to his question wasn’t going to be a good one, but he was preparing for the worse.

“Nothing.”

“Oh come on. We’re all here for ‘nothing’.” Kai said as he made air quotations to himself. “What did you do? It can’t possibly be as bad as what I’m thinking you did.”

“Think whatever you want.” Jackson said as he shifted again to his back. “I don’t remember, anyway. It’s anyone’s guess.” Jackson looked up at the ceiling and moved his hands behind his head. “Anyone’s guess.” He repeated. 

“Well what was your trial like? What did they say you did?” Kai said sitting up in his bunk.

“I don’t fucking remember. Drop it.”

“Bullshit.” Kai said plainly as he laid back down. “I told you about me.”

“Drop it.”   
***********************************************************************************************


	2. Genie in a Bottle

EMERALD CITY

E2S1: Genie in a Bottle

Jackson--Charlie Hunnam  
Kai--Darren Criss  
Riddle--Christopher Meloni  
Warden Ross--Idris Elba  
LV--Trevante Rhodes  
CocaCero--Adam Rodriguez  
Kona--Keanu Reeves  
Slick--Kelvin Pena  
Babyface--Jeremy McClain

Jax buttoned the second to last button at the top of his denim shirt as he looked out at the common area waiting for the doors to unlock and for Kai to wake up. For someone who had been in prison for less than a week, the rookie was holding up as well as Jax had seen anyone else do. 

He put his hands on the glass and next, his forehead. He was silently begging for the freedom that the morning crew would allow when they unlocked the doors to the cells.

Kai lay awake facing the wall, so that Jax didn’t look at him in his eyes. Jax had cold eyes that could be mistaken for dead and ever since he held what he was convicted for away from Kai, he had been acting cold, too.

Kai heard the click and the door sliding open. He exhaled.

Jax made his way up the stairs of the two-tier unit and into the office of Dr. Michael Riddle. 

“Hey, our meeting is today.”

“You need me here?” Riddle said as he removed the brown leather satchel from around his chest. 

“No, you can’t be here.” Jax said standing in the doorway leaning against the frame. 

“What are you gonna talk about, huh?” Riddle asked. Every other week, the leaders of each group met in Riddle’s office to discuss the needs, wants, and rules in Emerald City. Almost like a city council.

“It’s really...none of your business.” Jax said shifting his weight to rely fully on the door to hold him up. 

“Well,” Riddle said, standing up and into Jackson's face. “This is my office. It is my business, Jackson.” Riddle said in a low voice. 

Jax could feel chills up his spine as Riddle said his first name. He had always called him by his last name in front of everyone else, but when they were alone…

“I told you to stop doing that.” Jax said, just above a whisper. 

“Okay, fine.” Riddle said, backing away. He sat on the edge of his desk, looking directly at Jackson. “You and LV and Kona and Cero, you can have the office for thirty minutes.”

“An hour.” Jax said firmly. 

“No, that’s insane.”

“You know what else is insane?” Jax said walking towards the older man and standing directly in front of him. 

“Tell me.”

“That it takes one meeting with Warden Ross to get you in a lot of trouble.” Jackson said quietly, so that the guard outside of Riddle’s door couldn’t hear him.

“You never play fair, do you?”

“How long have you known me?”

“Fine, one hour. But after that, I’m coming in and kicking you guys out, with force if need be.” Riddle said gathering his things and making his way to the door. “You like force, don’t you?”  
***********************************************************************************************  
“So, we have one hour. We have a lot to talk about.” Jackson stared at the clock. 10am. Perfect.

“I want to talk about tits.” Cero mumbled. They all knew they were being watched. ‘Tits’ was code for drugs inside the walls of Oswald Penitentiary. 

“We talk about tits at every fucking meeting.” Jackson said, sitting on the desk of Dr. Riddle. “ LV, what you got to say?” Jackson questioned.

LV had his back to the group, facing the short bookshelf in Riddle’s office. He was flipping through War and Peace when Jackson asked and didn’t look up with his answer.

“Why your boys complain so much?” LV asked with his back still turned. 

“They don’t. Next issue.” Jackson shot back. LV put the book in the waistband of his pants and turned around. 

“Yes, they do. Last night, it was our shower time, and some ‘your’ boys told them to get out.” LV put air quotes around your and was moving closer to Jackson. “What’s the issue? I know y’all don’t like us, but we can be civil can’t we. What are y’all afraid of anyway. Scared we gon get you like we the fucking boogeyman or some shit.” LV was now in front of Jax. “Ah naw, y’all are afraid that our dicks are bigger than yours.” LV said grabbing his crotch in front of the other man. Cero stepped in and in between the men facing LV. Jackson was playing it cool, leaning back on the desk on his hands. 

“Look, your boys do be wild. Tell them to cut that shit out, aight?” Cero said looking over his shoulder at Jackson. “If it’s the Blacks time to shower, then they shouldn’t be in there. Understood?”

“I’ll tell them to cool it.” Jackson relaxed and sat up. LV sat down next to Kona in the swivel chair that was in front of Riddle’s desk. “Next.”

“Tits.” Cero said. 

“Fine.” Jackson said plainly, inspecting his fingernails. “We know the Latinos have them, and don’t like to share.” LV, Kona, and Jax all looked at Cero, who was in the corner standing. 

“Yeah. Well, I got a proposition for you foo’s.” Cero explained.

“Where’d you learn that big word?” Kona smiled.

“Your mother taught me.” Cero snapped back. “Look, I can get you all in on the trade. Have you making as much dinero as I am.”

“Yeah.” Jax said, genuinely interested. 

“Yeah. See, the kid in mi pandilla, Slick,”

“The young buck.” LV asked. 

“Yeah, yeah. He got the connect, baby.” Cero smiled, rubbing his hands together. 

“I don’t trust it.” Kona said looking around to see if anyone was gearing up to agree with him. No one else objected so he continued to listen. 

“My boy’s baby momma. She got ways, my nigga.” 

“Right up the chocha.” LV smiled. 

“Nah, they think she still pregnant. Shawty be rocking a belly and all that shit. The baby is three months now.” Cero smiled back. 

“Damn. That’s genius, Cero.” Jax smiled. “What do we have to gain, though? Why would you want us in on your game?”

“I don’t. I just thought I’d make you an offer.”

“For a cut.” LV said looking at Jax and then at Cero.

“Nothing in life is free, amigos.” Cero said lighting a cigarette he had pulled from his pocket.

“I’m out then, I’m not gonna get into business with slime and I’m not taking the wrap when your boys snitch on us.” LV said matter-of-factly.

“Snitch. My boys don’t do that shit. And if you’re out then you’re out. You’ll never be back in, so don’t ever ask. Your boys can keep on sniffing cleaning supplies and choking each other out.” 

Jax looked at the tension between them. Their eyes locked, waiting for the other to budge, but they both turned their attention to him. 

“I’m out too, C. I can’t get my boys addicted.” Jax said inspecting his fingernails once again. 

Cero laughed through his words. “Yeah right, the gringos got it the worst. The itch.” 

“Next issue.” Jax said looking up at the clock. 10:30am.

“The Asians want more reps in council.” Kona said unassuredly. 

“Call some of your guys on the outside and tell them to beat somebody to death like you did. You’d have more reps.” LV laughed as he turned to Kona in his swivel chair. 

“Very funny, LaVon. We’ll run this shithole, someday. And we won’t waste our opportunity to overthrow the haoles like the Blacks.”

“Fuck you.”

“No, fuck you.” Kona said standing up with his fists balled up. LV stood up with him in a similar stance. 

“Hey that’s enough.” Jax said jumping up and in between the two men. “Look, Kona, LV’s right. The Chinks don’t have the numbers. You’re gonna have to wait until you do.”

“We're not ‘Chinks’. We’re Ohana. Means family, haole.” Kona said, sitting down. 

“Next issue.” Jax said, sitting back down on Dr. Riddle’s desk. The room was silent, only filled with the ticking clock. 10:40am. “Can we all talk about the elephant in the room? Some people leave messes in common areas. Messes that include bodily fluid. We’re not all animals here. Can we clean up after we fuck?” Jax asked looking in the direction of Cero. 

“You think it’s us?” Cero questioned pointing at himself to represent the Latinos.

“I didn’t say it...but I wouldn’t be surprised.” Jax looked on menacingly. 

“We,” Cero said, making a circular motion with his hand signifying himself, Kona, and LV, “don’t do that. That’s all ‘your’ boys. Pinche gringos, dirtier than everyone, but wants to talk to us about cleaning up.”

“Eat me, C.” Jax said, rolling his eyes. 

“You’d like that too much.” Cero snapped back.

“We can all clean up. Next.” Kona said calmly. 

“We want to throw a party.” LV said. “In the common room.”

“Hell no.” Jax said, twisting his face. “No parties.”

“It’s some people’s birthdays coming up and we want to throw a party.”

“Give them your cake at dinner time, like we all do and carry on. No parties.”

“We’re gonna do it anyway.” LV said smiling and teasing Jax. 

“Invite everybody, then, since it’s the common area.” Cero said looking on intensely.

“No. It’s a Black only event.” LV said. 

“We’re Black.” Cero smiled. He knew he wasn’t wrong. 

“Not like us.” 

“Not like ‘Babyface’, huh?” Cero asked.

“He just lightskinned.” LV laughed. “Look, all the Latin niggas can come. And...your roommate.” LV said, looking at Jax. 

“Got a crush?” Jax laughed and the other two men followed suit. 

“Hell naw.” LaVon said, lying through his teeth. “He looked mixed when I met him. Bet he got some nigga in him.” 

“If not, you’ll put some in him.” Jax said, rising from the desk. 10:55am

“Ha-ha.” LV responded sarcastically.

“Anything else?” Jax asked. As Jax heard silence, the meeting was adjourned and the other men left the room. 

Jax waited until 11:00. 

“Still here, huh?” Riddle said, throwing his things on the desk. He sat down behind it as Jax walked over to the desk and sat sideways on it. 

“I...I was just kidding.”

“Bout what?” Riddle inquired furrowing his brow. 

“Telling the Warden on you. I wouldn’t do that.” he said quietly.

“Yeah, everything was consensual, too, right?”

“I’m a prisoner, I can’t consent.” Jax explained as if Riddle didn’t already know this.

“Yeah, but...you liked it...right?’ Riddle said very low from the swivel chair behind his desk.

Jax let out a sigh and looked Riddle in the eyes. His icy blue bulbs darted looking for the confidence, almost cockiness, he knew that Riddle possessed. It wasn’t there at that moment. Only insecurity and Jax hated when he got like that. There was no reason. “It was fine.” He said rising from the desk and rushing out of the room. He knew staying there would make things worse. He shouldn’t have stayed behind in the first place. But he had to let Riddle know that their little big secret was safe with him.  
***********************************************************************************************


End file.
